According to legend, lore, and some fact, President Theodore Roosevelt may well have been the downright friendliest U.S. president we've ever had. One reason: On New Year's Day 1907, he set what was then -- and may still be -- the world record for the number of handshakes in a single day -- 8,150 to be exact.

According to those following the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush and John Kerry, there could soon be a new world record: Both men, it seems, are extremely fond of this traditional political "vote for me" greeting.

The problem however -- in Roosevelt's day as well as now -- is that handshaking isn't exactly the healthiest way to win an election. Indeed, if experts are right, as we cruise head-on into cold and respiratory virus season, both Kerry and Bush could end up spending Election Day home in bed with the sniffles -- or worse -- as a result of those pre-election handshakes.

"Eighty percent of all infectious diseases are transmitted by contact both direct and indirect -- direct such as kissing, indirect such as shaking someone's hand," says Philip M. Tierno Jr., PhD, director of clinical microbiology and immunology at New York University Medical Center.